How common is spying on neighbours

Jacob Appelbaum, a Berliner mentioned that someone was spying on his apartment - he was influential in the TOR project. (http://www.dw.com/en/snowden-ally-appelbaum-claims-his-berlin-apartment-was-invaded/a-17315069)I also heard a story about home someone asked someones neighbor to install listening devices in their apartment in order to spy on them. This might be extreme (details here https://mattndian.wordpress.com/2016/07/03/the-start/) but my experience shows that the neighbors here are a nosey bunch. How widespread is this? Anybody have any other experiences?

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Hi Nial, it can happen that you have curious neighbors (and has happened to me), mostly someone who feels as if he or she is responsible to check if everybody complied with the „Hausordnung“. IMO it's best is not to see this as spying and take offence but to keep your distance but stay friendly - well that's how I handle this. Haven't seen this so much elsewhere though ..